Roundup: Alaska Governor Feeling the Heat on KidCare Veto

If Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell thought it was going to be easy to cut Denali KidCare, the subsidized healthcare program that covers low income children and pregnant women, he was definitely mistaken. Parnell, who refused to expand the program after learning that some of the funds could possibly go to providing abortion care, is now in the middle of a firestorm of criticism from the rest of the Alaskan legislature.

Parnell claims that the program is covering “hundreds of abortions” in the state, but the figures coming out don’t necessarily back that up. From the Cordova Times:

The Alaska health department says 0.18 percent of a health insurance program for low income families was spent on “abortion related services” but it didn’t have exact figures on how many abortions were performed.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell vetoed an expansion of Denali KidCare last week because he found out the program pays for abortions. Parnell said the program paid for “hundreds” of abortions, but the state senator who pushed for the money through the Legislature disputed that.

The health department on Friday said $384,000 of the program’s $217 million budget last year went toward “abortion related services” and 664 people received such services.

The department’s deputy commissioner Bill Streur said that doesn’t mean they all received abortions since that covers anyone who tells the program they are considering an abortion.

“It may or may not result in abortion. It may be a sonogram, it may be counseling that they receive,” Streur said.

Women who have abortions paid through the program also would have to prove that their procedure was “medically necessary,” according to Streur.

The Cordova Times also mentions what the expansion would have meant to the poor in the state, had it not been vetoed:

Meanwhile, Democrats are advocating for a special session to have the veto reconsidered. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

Four Anchorage Democrats have asked Gov. Sean Parnell to resurrect debate on low-income health care by calling a special session. But colleagues from Fairbanks said they doubt the session will come about and hinted politics could be behind the request.

One week ago, Parnell vetoed a proposed $2.9 million expansion of the Denali KidCare program, saying the expansion would allow more government aid for abortions. The increase was aimed at boosting eligibility for children and pregnant mothers to twice the federal poverty level.

Fairbanks-area senators suggested any resulting discussion would be best dealt with during the Legislature’s regularly scheduled sessions — where the House and Senate both easily passed the plan — and not at a special get-together months before most lawmakers face voters at the polls.

“Now, the variables of election-year politics come to play and may change previous, substantive determinations,” said Sen. Joe Paskvan, D-Fairbanks.

It’s no wonder a special session isn’t a popular idea, what with the Governor, after making his veto, running off to Colorado to meet with Evangelicals. From the Anchorage Daily News:

Gov. Sean Parnell and his Anchorage office director traveled to Colorado at state expense this week for meetings with the evangelical group Focus on the Family, reports AlaskaDispatch.com. The group describes itself as “a global Christian ministry … [providing] help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect God’s design, and for parents to raise their children according to morals and values grounded in biblical principles.”

Four candidates running to be Alaska’s next Lieutenant Governor squared off in a Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce sponsored forum on Tuesday. The candidates: Republicans Jay Ramras, Mead Treadwell, and Eddie Burke, and Democrat Diane Benson took questions on a range of topics, including two initiatives that will be on the August 24 primary ballot.

…

[Democratic candidate Diane] Benson, of Anchorage, was the only candidate who voiced opposition to requiring parental consent for abortion for women under 18 years old, the subject of the other proposition that will be on the August ballot.

Have gotten a number of communications from the Democrat running against Parnell pointing out that, to paraphrase, that a governor who is willing to hurt kids in order to ‘suck up’ to the religious right is a rerun of what we had with She Who Must Not Be Named. Between this and his visit on the State dime to do “government business” with Focus on the Family, Parnell has definitely lost MY vote.